Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet - Notes (Coles Notes)

Coles Editorial Board (William Shakespeare)

ISBN 10: 0774032286 / ISBN 13: 9780774032285

Published by Coles Publishing Company, Toronto, 1983

About this Item

Coles Notes on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Includes life & works, plot summary, sources of the play, atmosphere & theme, act summaries & commentaries, structure, characters, meaning, style, selected criticisms, bibliography, etc. Printed in Canada. Slight handling wear, otherwise a nice clean tight solid softcover copy. 123pp. SB-4.

Seller Inventory # 036889

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet - Notes (Coles Notes)
• Publisher: Coles Publishing Company, Toronto
• Publication Date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774032286
• ISBN 13: 9780774032285
• Binding: Wraps
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary Criticism

About this title

Synopsis

The magnificent, timeless drama is the world's most famous tale of "star-crossed lovers." The young, unshakable love of Juliet and Romeo defies the feud that divides their families—the Capulets and Montagues—as their desperate need to be together, their secret meetings, and finally their concealed marriage drive them toward tragedy. A masterwork that has long captured the hearts of audiences, this romantic tragedy has become part of the literary heritage of all peoples in all nations.

Review

This is undoubtedly the greatest love story ever written, spawning a host of imitators on stage and screen, including Leonard Bernstein's smash musical West Side Story, Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet filmed in 1968, and Baz Luhrmann's postmodern film version Romeo + Juliet. The tragic feud between "Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona", the Montagues and Capulets, which ultimately kills the two young "star-crossed lovers" and their "death-marked love" creates issues which have fascinated subsequent generations. The play deals with issues of intergenerational and familial conflict, as well as the power of language and the compelling relationship between sex and death, all of which makes it an incredibly modern play. It is also an early example of Shakespeare fusing poetry with dramatic action, as he moves from Romeo's lyrical account of Juliet--"she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" to the bustle and action of a 16th-century household (the play contains more scenes of ordinary working people than any of Shakespeare's other works). It also represents an experimental attempt to fuse comedy with tragedy. Up to the third act, the play proceeds along the lines of a classic romantic comedy. The turning point comes with the death of one of Shakespeare's finest early dramatic creations--Romeo's sexually ambivalent friend Mercutio, whose "plague o' both your houses" begins the play's descent into tragedy, "For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo". -- Jerry Brotton